News

Investigation continues for missing Santa Cruz antiques dealer

By Stephen Baxter, Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted:
01/10/2013 11:03:33 AM PST

Updated:
01/10/2013 11:21:15 AM PST

SANTA CRUZ - Nearly five months since Santa Cruz antiques dealer Deanna Brooks went missing, there has been no trace of her or her Chrysler PT Cruiser with body damage, Santa Cruz police said Wednesday.

Brooks, 70, lived on Berkeley Way in Santa Cruz and worked at Attillia's Antiques on Soquel Drive. She was set to drive to her mother's home in San Diego County on Aug. 25 but never arrived.

"We still continue to ping her (bank) accounts, and there is no new activity with her credit cards."

Clark added that a new detective might be assigned to the case this winter to "get a new set of eyes on it."

Brooks is a diabetic who uses a walker, her family said. In the weeks after the disappearance, her family and friends searched along highways to San Diego and from a helicopter around Santa Cruz County.

Her car has not been found.

Clark said it did not appear that she was robbed because she had little money on her, her accounts haven't been used and her car has not turned up.

A second scenario is that she wanted to disappear -- but she would have had to access her money, Clark said. A third scenario was that she drove off the road, possibly into the ocean.

"We have to follow the likely scenarios. I don't have the ability to have someone search every bit of coastline between here and San Diego," Clark said. Taylor Flynn, Brooks' younger son, described

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a painful search for Brooks in September.

Flynn described Brooks as a "loving, with-it grandmother of eight who had been planning this trip for weeks." She is 70 but seems younger and does not have dementia, Flynn said.

Brooks is about 5 feet, 3 inches tall with brown hair and green eyes. Her gold, four-door car is damaged on both sides. Its license plate number is 5EEV387. Santa Cruz police ask anyone with information to call 911, the anonymous tip line at 420-5995 or leave a tip at www.santacruzpolice.com or by the mobile application at http://m.santacruzpolice.com. Follow Sentinel reporter Stephen Baxter on Twitter: @sbaxter--sc